I would gripe about how Star Wars is always whooping up on 'Trek, but this makes me grin too much to care.

Via both technabob & reddit: how'd you like to submerge your computer in a liquid Bioshock tank?

That's actually mineral oil inside the tank, which is why nothing shorts out. Genius, right? (Lots more details from "sirleechalot," the builder, over at the reddit link.)

And just to even out the whole Star Wars vs Star Trek thing, check out what I stumbled across the other day:

I think this is my favorite. :)

There are lots more where those came from, too. Just go here and click through the six photo galleries. (The site isn't the easiest to navigate, so once you choose a gallery just scroll all the way down to find the pictures.) You also MUST go here and watch video clip #6, since I can't embed it. It's 24 seconds of pure geek glee, including - get this - Dr. McCoy shaking his booty. Literally. Your day will be made. Promise.

They had one of those foam printers running outside Comic-con this summer, to advertise an upcoming movie whose poster shows people being drawn up into the air towards a space ship. There were foam people floating all around the convention center.

I know internet one-upmanship is lame, but I used to work for Puget Systems, a custom computer shop that built one of the earliest mineral-oil submerged computers like that. The first one they put together is three years old now and still going strong, it really does make a good cooling system. It got enough interest that they started selling DIY kits, and they're now on to version 3, which looks pretty seriously epic.

If you're reading this and going "I want one!", keep in mind that they weigh a TON when filled. Like 50-60lbs for a small one. And they're filled to the top with sloshing oil. You really can't move one without draining it.

It also takes some doing to keep oil from wicking down the various wires and attachments. We couldn't figure out why the keyboards we used with the first one kept dying until the mouse started leaking oil. Yeah. Wireless and a lot of experimentation with couplings is a necessity with this one.

Anyway. They're cool. And no, you can't put fish in it. It's mineral oil, and it gets up to 60 degrees Celsius. So stop @#)%*&#$^ asking. (Yeah, we got that question a lot...)

Well, being a horse owner, I definitely know the many uses of mineral oil. You don't want to know how we get it into the horses when they colic. No, you REALLY don't. Therefore, I know how messy mineral oil is. So while that Bioshock tank is cool, I would never do that myself. However, I will send it to my computer geek friends who will probably want to try it. And if anyone wants to give it a shot and needs 5 gallon jugs of mineral oil, you can buy them online at equine vet stores, such as Jeffers or Valley Vet.

I did love listening to Beyond the Sea, though! That song is one of my favorites!

I was logging on to say the same thing that Paul said. Comic Con had one of these, it was strange. You just saw all these people floating around in the sky. I was curious how they did it, kind of cool to see the "printer" in action.

Oh Jen, get to TeeFury on FaceBook right away and take a look at the "Best Buddies" shirt. They only sell their t-shirt designs for one day, so after 10-08-10, this design won't be available. The bonus is the shirt are only $9 each and shipping is cheap. Anyway, "Best Buddies" shows Chewie and Han as kids, and like they were drawn in the style of Calvin & Hobbes. It's adorable!